JR Elsewhere

Shortwave Log, Northern Germany, April 2013

If you want to listen to the BBC, Deutsche Welle or the Voice of America on shortwave in central Europe these days, the easiest way to do so is to listen to their broadcasts for Africa. These stations broadcast from places like Ascension Island in the southern Atlantic, and Deutsche Welle has kept one of its formerly five own relay stations abroad in operation, from Kigali, Rwanda. VoA also broadcasts from São Tomé and Príncipe, an island in the Gulf of Guinea.

Shortwave radio continues to be popular in Africa, but not with everyone. Robert Mugabe and his regime aren’t fond of it at all, and reportedly issued a ban on shortwave receivers earlier this year. SW Radio Africa, an independent Zimbabwe radio station broadcasting from London in the United Kingdom (you never know who writes the Wikipedia entries) also rents airtime on shortwave, on 4880 kHz from Meyerton shortwave station in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, and can usually be received easily in central Europe during the evening hours.

Meyerton shortwave station, South Africa, 1986 QSL card.

Shortwave broadcasts from Meyerton started in October 1965, according to Jerome S. Berg‘s Broadcasting on the Short Waves*). It was soon named after Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (H. F. Verwoerd SW Station), a prime minister frequently referred to as the architect of Apartheid who was assassinated in 1966.

China might consider providing Harare with some advanced jamming technology, but this would probably complicate relations with other African countries – and maybe this form of development aid would also be a bit too costly.

My log list for April is short – I spent most of my spare time on gardening.